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Silver's Bioshock Difficulty and Balance mod beta 5.1

This is a balancing and difficulty mod by psikoticsilver.
Version 5.1 out Now!!

Installation:

1) Go to your ..\Bioshock\Content\ directory.
2) Rename ConfigINI.IBF to ConfigINI.IBF.bak
3) Make a backup copy of your ..\Bioshock\Content\System\ folder incase this mod fails to work or causes errors.
4) Move Localizedint.lbf from the content directory (..\Bioshock\Content\) into the System folder (..\Bioshock\Content\System\).
5) Extract my mod into your directly to your ..\Bioshock\Content\ directory, and click overwrite everything. This will copy some files into your ..\Bioshock\Content\System\ folder. Be SURE not to create a folder named after the mod.
6) Now would you kindly start a new game since it is required to make this mod work correctly.

Removal:

If for whatever reason you need to remove the mod
1) Delete your System Folder in the ..\Bioshock\Content\ directory (..\Bioshock\Content\System\).
2) Restore the backup you made of your Bioshock System folder.
3) Rename ConfigINI.IBF.bak and Localizedint.lbf.bak to the their original file extensions (in other words, remove the .bak extension).

* I've got a running list of changes thusfar, and these changes are NO LONGER BASED on Brazuca's work. If you have any suggestions or complaints I am open to your comments. Please, if you do I would appreciate criticism WITH examples and/or actual HELP with wading through the HUNDREDS OF PAGES OF INI FILES. I'm very open to help so let me know if you can or wish to.

* 2k has made certain aspects of early decks harder than some "middle of the run" decks--turrets and bots are a good example of this. Also, certain things seem to stall and not increase in difficulty for a few levels, then suddenly increase by a great deal. GENERALLY, I have implemented a progressive trend of difficulty "per deck", so overall "Per Deck" instances are changed in a manner which makes it harder as the player progresses in the game.

* Plasmids are more expensive. Tonics are more expensive. Slots are more expensive. As a result, you must spend your ADAM wisely and specialize. You will not have enough ADAM to upgrade ever category or use every type of tonic.

* There is some sort of rounding error in Bioshock that won't let me set certain plasmids and tonics to certain round costs. As a result some plasmids, for example may cost 141 instead of my desired 140. This CANNOT be fixed.

* I'm very interested in making hacking a more viable but equally challenging option to pure gun toting or plasmid whoring (I played most of my way through Bioshock using nothing more than the wrench and telekinesis). I also want to make security an obstacle rather than a nuisance. Turrets now treat humans and AI alike, there is no damage preference.

* This mod has become more of a survivalist mod. Scrounge what you can, and be careful. Waste not, want not.

* Despite having changed values in the Hacking.ini file, I cannot force the game to charge money or eve for each hacking attempt. I would love to institute something like this, but I cannot figure out how to get it working. Any help would be appreciated.

- Bugs fixed:
- A major error on my part has been fixed. Originally I planned for plasmid prices to have been increased but they had not. For some reason, Bioshock has 2 sets of plasmid prices and only uses the set defined in the "loottable.ini" file. I had, sensibly, changed the prices listed in the "plasmids.ini" file thinking that was where they were to be changed. I was very, VERY wrong. Plasmids should now be properly priced according to my chart at the bottom of the page.
- Many other inconsistencies between my change logs and the actual changes. I probably should have cataloged them but then I got high.
- Crash or anomalies on deck 7 due to a turret malfunction have been fixed.
- Fixed an error with pricing of Level 2 plasmids.
- Fixed a problem where level 3 plasmids were not available late game.
- Fixed bug where empty machine guns would drop and could not be picked up.
- All the typos in this change log

Changes:

*Plumbing... err... hacking...*
- The difficulty of hacking has been increased tremendously for every object through tweaking off pipe speed. From Version 5, hacking is MUCH harder.
- Medical deck bot starter bot now harder to hack.
- A certain hacking level is now required "Per-Deck". Levels are defined by the amount of engineering slots the player has unlocked. This forces specialization as you progress through the game.
- Engineering skill (number of slots) required to hack "per-deck," per-object, has been changed. Refer to the table below.

*Vending*
- Circus of Value items cost roughly 50-100% more.
- Circus of Value no longer sells ammo, but sells more junk food and film.
- Bandito Items cost more, on average 100% more and dispense half as much ammo as before.
- Hypos cost 50% more at Vending machines.
- Purchasing Film costs 4x more than the previously unhacked price. Hacking reduces price by 2x. Rolls only dispense 7 at a time.
- AutoHack can no longer be purchased.

*Loot*
- On average there is about a 20-40% decreased chance to find loot on a foe. There is always at LEAST 40% chance you will not find loot. As the player progresses through the game, the chance of find loot decreases even though the variety of loot or quantity found will increase.
- Each level has a set of harder foes. Usually these include Spider Splicers, Houdini's and Big Daddies. Hard foes will now have more varied loot, and usually more lucrative loot. This does not mean they have a high probability of dropping loot, however. There is, on average, a 40-60% chance of no loot on hard foes.
- Expect hypos to be more rare.
- Expect rare ammo types to be even less common.
- I have made changes to the how components drop. On any foe, there is a 10% chance the game will call for the component category. Once this call is made there is a 5% or 7% chance of receiving any particular component from human or robot, respectively.
- Enemies no longer carry items that they would not logically carry, with a few exceptions--ranged foes will carry bolts, machine gun ammo, shutgun ammo and/or pistol ammo even if it is not their weapon. Pipe hybrids... err I mean splicers no longer carry ammo of any sort--also, no one carries Napalm and Liquid nitrogen. I know you can make napalm out of polystyrene and gas, but seriously...
- Some foes did not give any loot, this has been fixed to provide at least a small chance for loot on any corpse.
- All turrets, bots and cameras have a 1% chance of having an Auto Hack tool.
- On splicers there is less than 1% chance of finding an Auto Hack tool (something below 0.5%).
- Reduced EVE drops bye 25-50%
- Reduced component drops by 15-50%
- Reduced ammo drops 50%
- Reduced grenadier rocket drops 50%
- Reduced flim drops
- Reduced cash drops up to 25%, except on Big Daddies.

*Spawning*
- Range from which AI will spawn in comparison to the player is 150% of the original value.
- Bots now spawn the same distances for AI as they do for Player.

*Player*
- Player now takes 25% increased damage from all sources except falling.
- Player can now be set on fire--this has a 25% chance of happening and has 25% effectiveness.

*Cameras*
- Lost target duration increased to 7 seconds.
- Increased health 300%.
- Changed non-alerted turn speed increased by 25%).
- Wait time at the end of a panning arc increased 33%.
- Decreased time taken for Security Camera to spot humans AND AI, to 1.5 seconds.
- Base Human inspection time "per-deck" has been lowered to that of AI. Cameras no longer favor human players in this manner. Reaction time "per-deck" has been changed to a 7.7% increase per-deck, and is now more reactive.
- Non hacked Camera lights are 25% brighter

*Security Bots*
- Explosions are smaller by 25%
- Explosion warning time increased to 0.2 seconds.
- Bots spin slightly more when attacked.
- Bots now stay in a hover position for only 3 seconds.
- Bots are more agile (25% speed increase) and stable (50% increase in sway speed and decrease in sway reduction)
- Minimum security bots health increase by 50% (450) Frozen health is still increased 66.6%.
- Medium security bots base health increased by 75% (525). Frozen health is still increased 100%. Health scales compoundly by 10% "Per-Deck" to increase difficulty.
- Maximum security bots have an 87.5% base health increase (937.5). Frozen health is still increased 100%.
- Reduced field of view by 15 degrees.
- All bots: Reduced maximum attack and detect range by 25%.
- Desired attacking range is now 25% closer.
- Increased lower pitch on bot weapons to -45 degrees.
- Bots start up more slowly after hacked. They should take a little over 3 seconds to get going.
- Accuracy vs both AI and Players has been reduced to 33% of the original Player values.
- Increase Minimum security bot maximum burst fire rate by 100%.
- Bots do 30% less damage vs AI

*Turrets*
- Minimum Security Turrets (Minigun) turrets have a 133% health increase. 10% health increase "per-deck."
- Medium Security Turrets (Flamer) turrets have a 100% health increase. 7.5% health increase "per-deck."
- Maximum Security Turrets (RPG) turrets have a 50% health increase. 6.67% health increase "per-deck."
- Freezing has less effect on turret health. Freezing has less apparent effect as one progresses from deck to deck because it has a constant - 200 health penalty. Freezing does not effect Medium Security Turret health.
- Minimum Security Turrets have 100% "lost-target" fire time. If you are pinned down, expect to stay pinned down unless you get creative.
- Medium Security Turrets have a 50% longer fire time but 50% longer cool-down. "Lost-target fire time" has been shortened 23%.
- A short 1 seconds "lost-target fire time" has been added to the Maximum Security Turret (pick your cover wisely ).
- Turret yaw and pitch turning speed decreased 25%.
- Turret "TargetDeadZone" decreased 25% (from 10 to 7.5 degrees).
- Turret target-timeout has been decreased 50% for player targets, and increased 200% for AI targets.
- "NewTargetAcquisitionDelay" decreased by 50% (1.5 seconds).
- Turrets should start moving and attacking 0.7 seconds sooner.
- Accuracy vs both AI and Players has been reduced to 33% of the original Player values.
- Medium security turrets are more accurate vs Human players and now just as accurate against AI.
- Maximum security turrets are more slightly more accurate vs Human players and now just as accurate against AI.
- All turrets now have 25% decreased fire range.
- Turrets take 100% increased damage from explosive sources.
- All turrets have adjusted damage. Overall damage is less but progresses nicely from deck to deck. AI damage now matches Human.

When I played Bioshock on Hard, it wasn't that it was terribly difficult- it was just boring and frustrating by the endgame, when I needed to put 4-5 shotgun slugs or dozens of machinegun rounds into one splicer to kill it. Increased enemy toughness completely kills this mod for me. If enemies were left at default health, but just made more lethal and with much less ammo lying around then it'd be great.

One thing that always got me about vanilla- Rapture's gone to hell. How is there so much ammunition still around? It's not like you can easily manufacture pistol rounds without a supply of powder and machine tools.

When I finish 5.1 I will start working on something that will please you more. What I had in mind originally was something along the lines of what you mentioned, however it evolved into this. I always wanted to start fresh for the final beta and this is most likely the route I'll be taking. Either that or I will simply make a "balance" mod and not a "balance and difficulty" mod.

However, give this mod a chance. The increase enemy toughness is offset by weapon and plasmid changes and late game balancing is being geared to bring down the difficulty on certain monsters.

If and when I remake it there will be health changes on monsters, but not nearly as broad as this. Some will be made slightly harder, some will be made mildly easier. Big Daddies, for example, are too frakin easy late game. Leadhead splicers are too hard.

What do you say? I really appreciate input because otherwise I will tailor the game simply to suit myself, which is what happened here.

A 'realism' mod could be interesting- make the enemies have high damage but low health, and drastically decrease the amount of ammunition lying around.

That's the idea.

As it is, my mod has cut back on the ammo and such found by at least 25%, if not more. However often times it is still too much. Components are drastically more rare in my mod as well, so it's harder to craft that muich needed special ammo.

I'll be working on the projects in parallel. As I finish the realism mod I will port some of the changes into my normal mod that way I can save time. If both have a similar feature, that is. In either case I need to update the structure of my INI files so it's more efficient and has less clutter so it'll be a month before I get anything solid out.

Ok. Well I've been busy preparing for the WiC ESL league and moving from one state to another.

I have, however, managed to completely isolate the bug that causes increased electrocution times (and technically it caused the infinite electrocution bug).
I've done a little other work and I have a list of needed changes, but as I said I've been busy.

Within the next month I plan on beginning another play through to test and evaluated needed changes.

I'm testing many new changes, including revised splicer loot and hacking speeds.

I am still debating where to take this mod and whether or not I should make two different mods.

ALSO I have some exciting news. I THINK I may have found a way to charge cash for weapon upgrades AND force the player to have a certain number of Combat slots to acquire different upgrades. This will definitely make gameplay more interesting.

I can't, it's not within my abilities. All I have access to are the INI files. Unless someone knows how to use UnrealEd to modify Bioshock. ... anyone?

I will see what I can do regarding Vita chambers, because I really want to do something about them. Apparently Brazuca figured a way to increase the difficulty for a time period after every death, but I have not. When I examined his changes to the DIFICULTY.INI file I didn't see it.

Ugh.
Honestly, the Vita Chambers are the one big problem with the game. Give them a cost and you've already upped the difficulty considerably.

Originally Posted by PSiKoTiCSiLVeR

I will see what I can do regarding Vita chambers, because I really want to do something about them. Apparently Brazuca figured a way to increase the difficulty for a time period after every death, but I have not. When I examined his changes to the DIFICULTY.INI file I didn't see it.

I tried to do the same thing as guys from Mirrors Edge forums, i.e. copy editor resources folders from UT3 and use -editor parameter with .exe, but it didn't work.

Unfortunately it doesn't work since all the Scripts are compiled.

News:
Sadly the features I hoped to unlock with Power to the People stations did not have their desired effect, thus I cannot implement them. However, I have still been working diligently on my mod and I hope to have release 6 out shortly.

In related news I've been working to create a Rift between Harvesting and Rescuing little sisters. In the current iteration of my mod Harvesters get over 1000 Adam more than Rescuers.